that amidst all my disappointments and sorrows it never came into my mind to say Where is God my Maker I could never savour any thing spiritual or divine and was ever ready in distress to turn my self any way than that which I ought towards thee I now see and bemoan my folly and with a convinced self-judging heart betake my self to thee The desires of my Soul are now unto thy Name and to the remembrance of thee Whom have I in Heaven but thee or on earth that I can desire besides thee This is Repentance towards God and is one thing belonging and most simply necessary to our Peace But thô it be most necessary it is not enough It answers to something of our wretched case but not to every thing We were in our state of Apostacy averse and disaffected to God To this evil Repentance towards him is the opposite and only proper Remedy But besides our being without inclination towards him we were also without Interest in him We not only had unjustly cast off him but were also most justly cast off by him Our Injustice had set us against him and his Justice had set him against us we need in order to our Peace with him to be relieved as well against his Justice as our own Injustice What if now we would return to him he will not receive us And he will not receive us for our own sakes He must have a recompence for the wrong we had done him by our rebellion against his Government and our contempt of his goodnes Our repentance is no expiation Nor had we of our own or were capable of obliging him to give us the power and grace to repent Our high violation of the sacred rights and honour of the Godhead made it necessary in order to our peace and reconciliation there should be a sacrifice and a Mediatour between him and us He hath judg'd it not honourable to him not becoming him to treat with us or vouchsafe us favours upon other terms And since he thought it necessary to insist upon having a sacrifice he judg'd it necessary too to have one proportionable to the wrong done lest he should make the Majesty of Heaven cheap or occasion men to think it a light matter to have fundamentally overturn'd the common order which was setled between himself and men The whole earth could not have afforded such a sacrifice it must be supply'd from Heaven His coeternal Son made man and so uniting Heaven and Earth in his own person undertakes to be that sacrifice and in the vertue of it to be a standing continual Mediatour between God and us Through him and for his sake all acts and influences of grace are to proceed towards us No sin is to be forgiven no grace to be confer'd but upon his account 'T is reckon'd most God-like most suitable to the divine Greatnes once offended to do nothing that shall import favour towards sinners but upon his constant interposition Him hath he set over us and directed that all our applications to himself and all our expectations from him should be thorough him Him hath he exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give us repentance and remission of Sins Now to one so high in power over us he expects we should pay a suitable homage That homage the Holy Scripture calls by the name of Faith believing on him God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnes for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare his righteousnes that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Rom. 3.25 26. So that when by repentance we turn to God as our end we must also apply our selves by faith to our Lord Jesus Christ as our way to that end Which till we do we are in rebellion still and know not what belongs to our peace He insists that his Son into whose hands he hath committed our affairs should be honoured by us as he himself requires to be John 5.23 Now these two things summe up our part of the Covenant between God and us By repentance we again take God for our God Repenting we return to him as our God By Faith we take his Son for our Prince and Saviour These things by the tenour of the Evangelical Covenant are required of us Peace is setled between God and us as it is usually with men towards one another after mutual hostilities by striking a Covenant And in our case it is a Covenant by sacrifice as you have seen Nor are harder terms than these impos'd upon us Dost thou now sinner apprehend thy self gone off from God And find a war is commenced and on foot between God and thee He can easily conquer and crush thee to nothing but he offers thee termes of peace upon which he is willing to enter into Covenant with thee Dost thou like his termes Art thou willing to return to him and take him again for thy God To resign and commit thy self with unfeigned trust and subjection into the hands of his Son thy Redeemer These are the things which belong to thy Peace See that thou now know them 2. But what knowledge of them is it that is here meant The thing speaks it self It is not a meer contemplative knowledge We must so know them as to do them otherwise the increase of knowledge is the increase of sorrow Thy guilt and misery will be the greater To know any thing that concerns our practice is to no purpose if we do not practise it It was an Hebrew form of speech and is a common form by words of knowledge to imply practice It being taken for granted that in matters so very reasonable and important if what we are to do once be rightly known it will be done Thus elsewhere the same great requisites to eternal life and blessednes are expressed by our Lord. This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent It being supposed and taken for granted that a true vivid knowledge of God and Christ will immediately form the soul to all sutable dispositions and deportments towards the one and the other and consequently to all men also as Christian precepts do direct to all the acts of sobriety justice and charity unto which the law of Christ obliges An habitual course of Sin in any kind is inconsistent with this knowledge of the things of our peace and therefore with our peace it self All Sin is in a true sense reducible to ignorance and customary sinning into total destitution of divine knowledge According to the usual style of the sacred writings 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to righteousnes and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God 3 John 11. He that sinneth i. e. that is a doer of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a worker of iniquity hath not seen God II. Such as live under the
persisted in with all the marks of infidelity and obduration against the truth and grace that so gloriously shine forth in the Gospel of our Redeemer we may after him speak positively He that believeth not shall be damned Is condemned already shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him If ye believe not that I am HE ye shall die in your sins Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And here how doth it become us too in conformity to his great example to speak compassionately and as those that in some measure know the terrour of the Lord O how doleful is the case when we consider the inconsistent notions of many with not this or that particular doctrine or article of the Christian Faith but with the whole summe of Christianity the Atheisme of some the avowed meer Theisme of others The former sort far outdoing the Jewish infidelity Which people besides the rational means of demonstrating a Deity common to them with the rest of mankind could upon the account of many things peculiar to themselves be in no suspence concerning this matter How great was their reverence of the books of the Old Testaâ—ent especially those of Moses their knowledge most certain of plain and most convincing matters of fact How long the Government of their Nation had been an immediate Theocracy what evident tokens of the divine presence had been among them from age to age in how wonderful a manner they were brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea and conducted all along through the Wildernes how glorious an appearance and manifestation of himself God afforded to them at the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai and by how apparent exertions of the divine power the former inhabitants were expelled and they settled in the promised land Upon all this they could be in no more doubt concerning the Existence of a Deity than of the Sun in the firmament Whereas we are put to prove in a Christian nation that this World and its continual successive inhabitants have a wise intelligent Maker and Lord and that all things came not into the state wherein they are by no man can imagine what either fatal necessity or casualty But both sorts agree in what I would principally remark the disbelief of Christs being the Messiah And so with both the whole business of Christianity must be a Fable and a Cheat. And thus it is determined not by men that have made it their business to consider and examine the matter for the plain evidence of things cannot but even obtrude a conviction upon any diligent enquirer but by such as have only resolved not to consider who have before hand settled their purpose never to be awed by the apprehension of an invisible Ruler into any course of life that shall bear hard upon sensual inclination have already chosen their Master inslaved themselves to brutal appetite and are so habituated to that mean servility made it so connatural so deeply inward to themselves so much their very life as that through the preapprehended pain and uneasiness of a violent rupture in tearing themselves from themselves it is become their interest not to admit any serious thought Any such thought they are concerned they reckon to fence against as against the point of a sword it strikes at their only life the brute must dy that by an happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they may be again born men That is the design of Christianity to restore men to themselves again and because it hath this tendency it is therefore not to be endured And all the little residue of humane wit which is yet left them which because the sensual nature is predominant is prest into a subserviency to the interest and defence of the brutal life only serves them to turn every thing of serious Religion into ridicule and being themselves resolved never to be reasoned into any seriousnes they have the confidence to make the tryal whether all other men can be jested out of it If this were not the case if such persons could allow themselves to think and debate the matter how certain would the victory how glorious would the Triumph be of the Christian Religion over all the little cavils they are wont to alledge against it Let their own consciences testifie in the case whether ever they have applyed themselves to any solemn disquisition concerning this important affair but only contented themselves with being able amidst transient discourse to cast out now and then some oblique glance against somewhat or other that was appendent or more remotely belonging to the Christian Profession in so much hast as not to stay for an answer and because they may have surprised sometimes one or other not so ready at a quick repartee or who reckoned the matter to require solemn and somewhat larger discourse which they have not had the patience to hear whether they have not gone away puft and swoln with the conceit that they have whiffled Christianity away quite off the stage with their prophane breath as if its firm and solid strength wherein it stands stable as a rock of Adamant depended upon this or that sudden occasional momentany effort on the behalf of it But if such have a mind to try whether any thing can be strongly said in defence of that sacred profession let them considerately peruse what hath been written by divers to that purpose And not to engage them in any very tedious longsome task if they like not to travel thorough the somewhat abstrufer work of the most learned Hugo Grotius de veritate Christianae Religionis or the more voluminous Huetius his Demonstratio Evangelica or divers others that might be named let them but patiently and leasurely read over that later very plain and clear but nervous and solid Discourse of Dr. Parker upon this subject and judge then whether the Christian Religion want evidence or whether nothing can be alledged why we of this age so long after Christ's appearance upon the stage of the World are to reckon our selves obliged to profess Christianity and observe the rules of that holy Profession And really if upon utmost search it shall be found to have firm truth at the bottom it makes it self so necessary which must be acknowledged part of that Truth that any one that hath wit enough to be the author of a jeast might understand it to be a thing not to be jeasted with It trifles with no man And where it is once sufficiently propounded leaves it no longer indifferent whether we will be of it or no. Supposing it true it is strange if we can pretend it not to be sufficiently propounded to Us. Or that we are destitute of sufficient means to come by the knowledge of that Truth was this Religion instituted only for one Nation or Age Did the Son of God descend from Heaven put on flesh and dy had we an incarnate Deity conversant among men on earth and made a Sacrifice for
worm was otherwise shortly to have had dominion to the Alienation of mens minds from God their disaffection to the only means of their recovery and reconciliation to him and their subjection to his Wrath and Curse for ever When also 't is plain he considered that perverse temper of mind and spirit in them as the cause of their ruine which his own words imply that the things which belonged to their peace were hid from their eyes and that the things he foretold should befall them because they knew not the day of their Visitation For what could the things be that belong'd to their peace but turning to God believing in himself as the Messiah bringing forth of fruits meet for repentance Whence also there must be another latent and conceal'd meaning of their peace it self than only their continued amity with the Roman State Their peace with Heaven their being set right and standing in favour and acceptance with God For was it ever the first intention of the things enjoyn'd in the Gospel but to entitle men to earthly secular benefits Nor can we doubt but the same things lay deep in the mind of our blessed Lord when he uttered these words as when he spake those so very like them Mat. 23.37 38. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Ptophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy Children together even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate These other were not spoken indeed at the same time but very soon after Those we are considering in his way to the City these when he was come into it most probably by the Series of the Evangelical History the second day after his having lodg'd the first night at Bethany But it is plain they have the same sense and that the same things lay with great weight upon his Spirit so that the one passage may contribute much to the enlightning and expounding of the other Now what can be meant by that I would have gathered you as the Hen her Chickens under her wings Could it intend a political meaning that he would have been a Temporal Prince and Saviour to them which he so earnestly declined and disclaimed professing to the last his Kingdom was not of this world It could mean no other thing but that he would have reduc't them back to God have gathered and united them under his own gracious and safe Conduct in order thereto have secured them from the divine Wrath and Justice and have confer'd on them spiritual and eternal blessings In a like sense their peace here was no doubt more principally to be understood and their loss and forfeiture of it by their not understanding the things belonging thereto considered and lamented Therefore the principal intendment of this Lamentation thô directly apply'd to a Community and the formed body of a people is equally appicable unto particular persons living under the Gospel or to whom the ordinary means of their Conversion and salvation are vouchsafed but are neglected by them and forfeited We may therefore thus summe up the meaning and sense of these words That it is a thing in it self very lamentable and much lamented by our Lord Jesus when such as living under the Gospel have had a day of grace and an opportunity of knowing the things belonging to their peace have so outworn that day and lost their opportunity that the things of their peace are quite hid from their eyes Where we have these distinct heads of discourse to be severally considered and insisted on 1. What are the things necessary to be known by such as live under the Gospel as immediately belonging to their peace 2. That they have a day or season wherein to know not these things only but the whole compass of their case and what the knowledge of those things more immediately belonging to their peace supposes and depends upon 3. That this day hath its bounds and limits so that when it is over and lost those things are for ever hid from their eyes 4. That this is a case to be considered with deep resentment and lamentation and was so by our Lord Jesus 1. What are the things necessary to be known by such as live under the Gospel as immediately belonging to their peace Where we are more particularly to enquire 1. What those things themselves are 2. What sort of Knowledge of them it is that is here meant and made necessary 1. What the things are which belong to the Peace of a People living under the Gospel The things belonging to a Peoples Peace are not throughout the same with all Living or not living under the Gospel makes a considerable difference in the matter Before the Incarnation and publick appearance of our Lord something was not necessary among the Jews that afterwards became necessary It was sufficient to them before to believe in a Messiah to come more indefinitely Afterwards he plainly tells them if ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins Joh. 8.24 Believing in Christ cannot be necessary to Pagans that never heard of him as a duty howsoever necessary it may be as a means Their not believing in him cannot be it self a sin thô by it they should want remedy for their other sins But it more concerns us who do live under the Gospel to apprehend aright what is necessary for our selves That is a short and full summary which the Apostle gives Acts 20.21 Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel finds us in a state of Apostacy from God both as our Sovereign Ruler and Sovereign Good not apt to obey and glorifie him as the former nor enjoy him and be satisfi'd in him as the latter Repentance towards God cures and removes this disaffection of our minds and hearts towards him under both these notions By it the whole Soul turns to him with this sense and resolution I have been a rebellious disloyal Wretch against the high Authority and most rightful Government of him who gave me breath and whose creature I am I will live no longer thus Lo now I come back unto thee O Lord thou art my Lord and God Thee I now design to serve and obey as the Lord of my Life thee I will fear unto thee I subject my self to live no longer after my own will but thine I have been hitherto a miserable forlorn distressed Creature destitute of any thing that could satisfie me or make me happy have set my heart upon a vain and thorny world that had nothing in it answerable to my real necessities that hath flattered and mockt me often never satisfi'd me and been wont to requite my pursuits of satisfaction from it with vexation and trouble and pierce◠me through with many sorrows I have born in the mean time a disaffected heart towards thee have therefore cast thee out of my thoughts so
intend to punish it according to its desert when it cannot be thought unjust actually to render to men what they deserve We are indeed to account the primary intention of continuing the Gospel to such a people among whom these live is kindnes towards others not this higher revenge upon them Yet nothing hinders but that this revenge upon them may also be the fit matter of his secondary intention For should he intend nothing concerning them Is he to be so unconcern'd about his own creatures that are under his Government While things cannot fall out to him unawares but that he hath this dismal event in prospect before him he must at least intend to let it be or not to hinder it And who can expect he should for that his gracious influence towards them should at length cease is above all exception that it ceasing while they live still under the Gospel they contract deeper guilt and incur heavier punishment followes of course And who can say he should not intend to let it follow For should he take away the Gospel from the rest that these might be less punished that others might not be saved because they will not Nor can he be obliged to interpose extraordinarily and alter for their sakes the course of nature and providence so as either to hasten them the sooner out of the world or cast them into any other part of it where the Gospel is not lest they should by living still under it be obnoxious to the severer punishment For whither would this lead he should by equal reason have been obliged to prevent mens sinning at all that they might not be liable to any punishment And so not to have made the world or have otherwise framed the methods of his Government and less sutably to an whole community of reasonable creatures or to have made an end of the world long ago and have quitted all his great designs in it lest some should sin on and incur proportionable punishment or to have provided extraordinarily that all should do and fare alike and that it might never have come to pass that it should be less tolerable fo◠Capernaum and Chorazin and Bethsaida than for Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah But is there unrigteousnes with God or is he unrighteous in taking vengeance or is he therefore unjust because he will render to every one according to his works to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek glory honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousnes indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile Rom. 2.6 7 8 9. Doth righteousnes it self make him unrighteous O Sinner understand how much better it is to avoid the stroke of divine justice than accuse it God will be found true and every man a liar that he may be justified when he speaks and be clear when he judges Psal. 51.4 6. Yet are we not to imagine any certain fixed rule according whereto except in the case of the unpardonable sin the divine dispensation is measured in cases of this nature viz. That when a sinner hath contended just so long or to such a degree against his Grace and Spirit in his Gospel he shall be finally rejected or if but so long or not to such a degree he is yet certainly to be further try'd or treated with It is little to be doubted but he puts forth the power of victorious grace at length upon some more obstinate and obdurate sinners and that have longer persisted in their rebellions not having sin'd the unpardonable sin and gives over some sooner as it seems good unto him Nor doth he herein owe an account to any man of his matters Here Sovereign good pleasure rules and arbitrates that is ty'd to no certain rule Neither in these variations is there any shew of that blameable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or accepting of persons which in his own word he so expresly disclaims We must distinguish matters of right even such as are so by promise only as well as others and matters of meer unpromised favour In matters of right to be an accepter of persons is a thing most highly culpable with men and which can have no place with the holy God i. e. When an humane judge hath his rule before him according whereto he is to estimate mens rights in judgment there to regard the person of the rich or of the poor to the prejudice of the justice of the cause were an insufferable iniquity as it were also in a private person to withhold anothers right because he hath no kindnes for him So even the great God himself thô of meer grace he first fix't and establish't the rule fitly therefore called the Covenant or law of grace by which he will proceed in pardoning and justifying men or in condemning and holding them guilty both here and in the final judgment Yet having fix't it he will never recede from it so as either to acquit an impenitent unbeliever or condemn a beleiving penitent If we confes our sins he is faithful and just to forgive None shall be ever able to accuse him of breach of faith or of transgressing his own rules of justice We find it therefore said in reference to the judgment of the last day when God shall render to every man according to his works whether they be Jewes or Gentiles that there is no respect of persons with God Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. yet qui promisit paenitenti veniam non promisit peccanti paenitentiam whereas he hath by his Evangelical law ascertain'd pardon to one that sincerely obeys it but hath not promised grace to enable them to do so to them that have long continued wilfully disobedient and rebellious this communication of grace is therefore left arbitrary and to be dispensed as the matter of free and unassured favour as it seems him good And indeed if in matters of arbitrary favour respect of persons ought to have no place friendship were quite excluded the world and would be swallowed up of strict and rigid justice I ought to take all men for my friends alike otherwise than as justice should oblige me to be more respectful to men of more merit 7. Wherefore no man can certainly know or ought to conclude concerning himself or others as long as they live that the season of grace is quite over with them As we can conceive no rule God hath set to himself to proceed by in ordinary cases of this nature so nor is there any he hath set unto us to judge by in this case It were to no purpose and could be of no use to men to know so much therefore it were unreasonable to expect God should have setled and declared any rule by which they might come by the knowledge of it As the case is then viz. there being no such rule
no such thing can be concluded for who can tell what an arbitrary Sovereign free Agent will do if he declare not his own purpose himself How should it be known when the Spirit of God hath been often working upon the soul of a man that this or that shall be the last act and that he will never put forth another And why should God make it known To the person himself whose case it is 't is manifest it could be no benefit Nor is it to be thought the holy God will ever so alter the course of his own proceedings but that it shall finally be seen to all the world that every mans destruction was entirely and to the last of himself If God had made it evident to a man that he were finally rejected he were obliged to believe it But shall it ever be said God hath made any thing a mans duty which were inconsistent with his felicity The having sinned himself into such a condition wherein he is forsaken of God is indeed inconsistent with it And so the case is to stand i. e. that his perdition be in immediate connection with his sin not with his duty As it would be in immediate necessary connection with his duty if he were bound to believe himself finally forsaken and a lost creature For that belief makes him hopeles and a very devil justifies his unbelief of the Gospel towards himself by removing and shutting up towards him the object of such a faith and consequently brings the matter to this state that he perishes not because he doth not believe God reconcileable to man but because with particular application to himself he ought not so to believe And it were most unfit and of very pernicious consequence that such a thing should be generally known concerning others It were to anticipate the final Judgment to create an Hell upon Earth to tempt them whose doom were already known to do all the mischief in the world which malice and despair can suggest and prompt them unto it were to mingle devils with men and fill the world with confusion How should Parents know how to behave themselves towards Children an Husband towards the Wife of his bosom in such a case if it were known they were no more to counsel exhort admonish them pray with or for them than if they were devils And if there were such a rule how frequent misapplications would the fallible and distempered minds of men make of it so that they would be apt to fancy themselves warranted to judge severely or uncharitably and as the truth of the case perhaps is unjustly concerning others from which they are so hardly withheld when they have no such pretence to embolden them to it but are so strictly forbidden it And the judgment-seat so fenced as it is by the most awful interdicts against their usurpation and encroachments We are therefore to reverence the wisdom of the divine Government that things of this nature are among the arcana of it Some of those secrets which belong not to us He hath revealed what was fit and necessary for us and our children and envies to man no useful knowledge But it may be said when the Apostle 1 Joh. 5.16 directs to pray for a brother whom we see sinning a sin that is not unto death and addes there is a sin unto death I do not say he shall pray for it Is it not imply'd that it may be known when one sins that sin unto death not only to himself but even to others too I answer it is imply'd there may be too probable appearances of it and much ground to suspect and fear it concerning some in some cases As when any against the highest evidence of the truth of the Christian Religion and that Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah the proper and most sufficiently credible testimony whereof he had mentioned in the foregoing verses under heads to which the whole evidence of the truth of Christianity may be fitly enough reduced do notwithstanding from that malice which blinds their understanding persist in infidelity or apostatize and relapse into it from a former profession there is great cause of suspicion lest such have sinned that sin unto death Whereupon yet it is to be observed he doth not expresly forbid praying for the persons whose case we may doubt only he doth not enjoyn it as he doth for others but only saies I do not say ye shall pray for it i. e. that in his present direction to pray for others he did not intend such but another sort for whom they might pray remotely from any such suspicion viz. that he meant now such praying as ought to be interchanged between Christian friends that have reason in the main to be well perswaded concerning one another In the mean time intending no opposition to what is elsewhere enjoyned the praying for all men 1 Tim. 2.1 Without the personal exclusion of any as also our Lord himself prayed indefinitely for his most malicious enemies Father forgive them they know not what they do thô he had formerly said there was such a sin as should never be forgiven Whereof 't is highly probable some of them were guilty yet such he doth not expresly except but his prayer being in the indefinite not the universal form 't is to be supposed it must mean such as were within the compas and reach of prayer and capable of benefit by it Nor doth the Apostle here direct personally to exclude any only that indefinitely and in the general such must be supposed not meant as had sinn'd the sin unto death or must be conditionally excluded if they had without determining who had or had not To which purpose it is very observable that a more abstract form of expression is used in this latter clause of this verse For whereas in the former positive part of the direction he enjoyns praying for him or them that had not sinn'd unto death viz. concerning whom there was no ground for any such imagination or suspicion that they had In the negative part concerning such as might have sinn'd it he doth not say for him or them but for it i. e. concerning or in reference to it as if he had said the case in general only is to be excepted and if persons are to be distinguisht since every sin is some ones Sin the sin of some person or other let God distinguish but do not you 't is enough for you to except the sin committed by whomsoever And thô the former part of the verse speaks of a particular person If a man see his brother sin a sin that is not unto death which is as determinate to a person as the sight of our eye can be it doth not follow the latter part must suppose a like particular determination of any persons case that he hath sin'd it I may have great reason to be confident such and such have not when I can only suspect that such a one hath And
duty It were therefore inconsistent with his felicity inasmuch as it would make that duty impossible to be performed which before was by the constitution of the Evangelical law made necessary to it viz. Repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The hope of acceptance is so necessary to both these that the belief of a mans being finally rejected or that he shall never be accepted cannot but make them both impossible equally impossible as if he were actually in hell as much impossible to him as to the devils themselves Nor is this impossibility meerly from a moral impotency or that obduration of heart which were confessedly vicious and his great sin but from the natural influence of that belief of his being for ever rejected which upon the mentioned supposition were his duty Besides inasmuch as it is the known duty of a sinner under the Gospel to turn to God thorough Christ and it is also declared in the same Gospel sufficiently to make it the common matter of faith to Christians that none can of themselves turn to God and believe in his Son without the hlep of special efficious grace It must hereupon be a mans duty also to pray for that grace which may enable him hereto How deep in wickedness was Simon Magus even in the gall of bitternes and bond of iniquity when yet Peter calls him to repentance and puts him upon praying for forgivenes which must imply also his praying for the grace to repent but how can a man pray for that which at the same time he believes shall not be given him yea and which is harder and more unaccountable how can he stand obliged in duty to pray for that which at the same time he stands obliged in duty to believe he shall not obtain How can these two contrary obligations ly upon a man at the same time or is he to look upon the former as ceased should he reckon the Gospel as to him repealed or his impenitency and infidelity even when they are at the highest no sins I know 't is obvious to object as to all this the case of the unpardonable blasphemy against the holy Ghost which will be supposed to be stated and determined in the sacred Scriptures and being so the person that hath committed it may equally be thought obliged by a mixt assent partly of faith to what is written partly of self-knowledge which he ought to have of his own acts and state to conclude himself guilty of it whereupon all the former inconvenience and difficulty will be liable to be urged as above But even as to this also I see not but it may fitly enough be said that though the general nature of that sin be stated and sufficiently determined in thesi yet that God hath not left it determinable in hypothesi by any particular person that he hath committed it For admit that it generally lies in imputing to the devil those works of the Holy Ghost by which the truth of Christianity was to be demonstrated I yet see not how any man can apply this to his own particular case so as justly and certainly to conclude himself guilty of it I take it for granted none will ever take the notion of blasphemy in that strictness but that a man may possibly be guilty of this sin as well in thought as by speech I also doubt not but it will be acknowledged on all hands that prejudice and malice against Christianity must have a great ingrediency into this sin not such malice as whereby knowing it to be the true Religion a man hates and detests it as such which would suppose these Pharisees whom our Saviour charges with it or cautions against it to have been at that time in their judgments and consciences Christians but such malignity and strong prejudice as darkens and obstructs his mind that he judges it not to be true against the highest evidence of its being so It will also be acknowledged that some enmity and disaffection to true Religion is common to all men more especially in their unregeneracy and unconverted state Now let it be supposed that some person or other of a very unwarrantably sceptical Genius had opportunity to know certainly the matter of fact touching the miraculous works wrought by our Saviour and understood withall somewhat generally of the doctrine which he taught and that he sets himself as a Philosopher to consider the case Suppose that partly thorough prejudice against the holy design of Christianity whereof there is some degree in all and partly thorough shortnes of discourse not having thoroughly considered the matter he thinks it possible that some Daemon or other with design under a specious pretence to impose upon or amuse the credulous vulgar may have done all those strange things Suppose his judgment should for the present more incline this way What if thinking this to be the case in the instance of Apollonius Tyanaeus he hath not yet upon a slighter view discerned enough to distinguish them but thinks alike of both cases yea and suppose he have spoken his sentiments to some or other Perhaps upon further enquiry and search he might see cause to alter his judgment And now setting himself to enquire more narrowly he perceives the unexceptionable excellent scope and tendency of our Saviours doctrine and precepts considers the simplicity and purity of his life contemplates further the awful greatness of his mighty works but amidst these his deliberations he finds among the rest of christian constitutions this severe one Mat. 12.31 32. and begins to fear lest supposing the truth of this excellent Religion he have precluded himself of all the advantages of it by that former judgment of his what is he to do in this case what were he to be advised unto what to pass judgment upon himself and his case as desperate or not rather to humble himself before the God of heaven ask pardon for his injurious rash judgment and supplicate for mercy and for further illumination in the mystery of God of the Father and of Christ Which course that it may have a blessed issue with him who dare venture to deny or doubt And what have we to say hereupon but that in great wisdom and mercy our Saviour hath only told us there is such a sin and what the general nature of it is or whereabouts it lies but the judgment of particular cases wherein or of the very pitch and degree of malignity wherewith it is committed he hath reserved to himself intending further to strive with persons by his Spirit while he judges them yet within the reach of mercy or withhold it when he sees any to have arrived to that culminating pitch of malignity and obstinacy wherein he shall judge this sin specially to consist And what inconvenience is it to suppose he hath left this matter touching the degree humanely undeterminable The knowledge of it can do them who have committed it no good And probably they have by